Does anyone remember the store Venture? Basically it was a cheap version of Target before there were Targets. They had everything. Just venture beyond the giant diagonal black and white stripes covering the front of the building and enter a shopping paradise filled with affordable household items and “I’m Thumbody” iron-on sweatshirts. Venture was the destination for back to school, holiday, and all-occasion shopping. But for me, Venture remains in my memory for two reasons. First, it’s where I shoplifted candy and nail polish with friends from my early teen years. Second, it’s where I’d treat my nieces to shopping sprees of shoes and hair clips when I was a young adult. Only one of these makes me proud. Hmmmm, which one?
I feel like I’ve been doing mom things forever and that’s because before I was a mom I was an aunt. But not just any aunt. I went well beyond always having gum in my purse. I was a fan-freaking-tastic aunt that loved hanging out with the tiny people my siblings created. I loved them so much I even changed their diapers. And when they got older, going on our shopping sprees to Venture made my nieces feel special while we created fun memories together.
And now my nieces and nephews have gone and grown up. People whose diapers I’ve changed now are changing diapers of their own (you know what I mean). These people who seem like babies have actual babies the same age as my daughter. This makes me a great aunt (on top of already being a fan-freaking-tastic one). When I was growing up I had some great aunts who seemed ancient. One was a hat model married to a train robber — that’s how ancient they were — they came from an era when people wore hats and robbed trains. I suppose my grand nieces will one day tell stories about how their great aunt came from an era when people had a “telephone” stuck on their kitchen wall and had to get off their duff to turn a knob on the 2-D television to watch a show at a precise time from among three available channels. “Can you imagine,” they will telepathically ask each other via their brain iChips. “That sounds like torture!”
My daughter and my grandniece are best friends now. They go wild together, copy each other’s goofiness and sometimes fight over who loves the color pink more. They like to wear the same dresses and twirl around like little princesses. It’s adorable. They also both like to go on shopping sprees at Target, which my daughter calls, “an adventure” because you never know what we might find. Her favorite sections are shoes and hair clips, which nicely carries on the family tradition.
Pushing Fifty and a Stroller 